oubtless is meant by this singularly ill-chosen word.

[69] As General Sherman justly asked, "What reward adequate to the service,
could the United States have given Grant for the Vicksburg campaign?"

CHAPTER XI.

NELSON'S RETURN FROM EGYPT TO NAPLES.--MEETING WITH LADY
HAMILTON.--ASSOCIATION WITH THE COURT OF NAPLES.--WAR BETWEEN NAPLES
AND FRANCE.--DEFEAT OF THE NEAPOLITANS.--FLIGHT OF THE COURT TO
PALERMO.

SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER, 1798. AGE, 40.

The voyage of Nelson's small division from Aboukir Bay to Naples
occupied between four and five weeks, owing partly to light and
contrary winds, and partly to the dull sailing of the "Culloden,"
which had a sail secured under her bottom to lessen the dangerous leak
caused by her grounding on the night of the battle. This otherwise
unwelcome delay procured for Nelson a period of salutary, though
enforced, repose, which the nature of his injuries made especially
desirable. His mind, indeed, did not cease to work, but it was free
from harassment; and the obvious impossibility of doing anything, save
accept the present easy-going situation, contributed strongly to the
quietness upon which restoration depended. Nor were there wanting
matters of daily interest to prevent an excess of monotony. Now that
frigates were no longer so vitally necessary, they and other light
cruisers turned up with amusing frequency, bringing information, and
being again despatched hither and yonder with letters from the
admiral, which reflected instinctively his personal moods, and his
active concern in the future military operations.

The distress from his head continued for some time with little
abatement, and naturally much affected his tone of mind. At the first
he spoke of his speedy return to England as inevitable, nor did the
prospect occasion the discouragement which he had experienced after
the loss of his arm; a symptom which had shown the moral effect of
failure upon a sensitive and ambitious temperament. "My head is ready
to split," he had written to St. Vincent before starting, "and I am
always so sick; in short, if there be no fracture, my head is severely
shaken." A fortnight after leaving the bay, he writes him again: "I
know I ought to give up for a little while; my head is splitting at
this moment;" and Nicolas remarks that the letter bears evident marks
of suffering, three attempts being made to spell the word "splitting."
Yet by this time the pain had become at least inte